Recognizing that alert and warning information is only effective if received means understanding how people in our communities choose to receive information. And if the goal is to alert everyone, then it is vitally important not to overlook the approximately 25% of our population who rely on assistance or accommodation in their day-to-day lives. Pushing […]

Why is the Public Complacent About Emergency Alerting Signup?
Never before have there been so many communications channels available for alerting, and it’s a good thing, the public expects them. That’s the way I’m starting my presentation this week to the National Homeland Security Conference on “Saving Lives Through Alerting Technology”. The audience will see a […]

Galain President Rick Wimberly will present at the “Saving More Lives Through Science & Technology” panel at the National Homeland Security Conference 2013 on June 4 in Los Angeles.
The panel will take place at 3:30pm PT on Tuesday, June 4 in the “Santa Barbara A/B” room at the conference site.
Find more information on the conference […]

How Can Wireless Emergency Alerts Benefit Local Media and Broadcasters?
The best examples of best practices often come from real life. Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) showed the rest of us strong best practices when they issued the shelter-in-place order last week. MEMA used the new broadcast cell system, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), to help spread the […]

Many of you have been asking if the new cell broadcast alert system, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), were used in Boston. The answer: Yes.

Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) is among the state agencies across the nation with ability and authority to issue imminent threat WEA messages through the system. On April 19th, the day the […]

On November 9, 2011, FEMA successfully initiated the Emergency Action Notification (EAN), the live code used for Presidential activations of the nationwide EAS.
The FCC subsequently has collected and analyzed thousands of reports, including some that came in as recently as November 2012, held
discussions with FEMA and other stakeholders to analyze the data contained in these […]

If you think the national cell broadcast program is simply on its way, think again. The National Weather Service (NWS) tells us that they alone have issued Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) through the system 3,185 times since July. NWS was the first out of the box to start using WEA, which sends special text alerts […]

Why did the FCC do away with CMAS?
Goodbye CMAS! Hello WEA! The Federal Communciations Commission (FCC) has officially changed the name of the new national cell broadcast system from the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) to Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). The reason is pretty simple: it was confusing for wireless carriers to use WEA and […]